Secretary's Report

I'm in New Delhi. It's probably great. See you next month.

Also, I've done some research on our standing rules. The current page Standing Rules should be regarded as up to date; but not all of the rules have been voted on and some don't really make sense, or are overlapping with bylaws. There are annotations noting which rules have been ratified and links citations to relevant sections of old meeting minutes.

These are available for your perusal and comments; we should consider voting on the rules which are unratified or they will be removed, and reviewing some of the older rules. Most of Article IV seems to never have been voted upon and none of Article V.

Thirdly -- the outgoing pile. I've been unable to discharge my duties w/r/t the outgoing pile this month; we will keep it open until ahead of the next meeting and close it with enough time for everyone to go through it then.

Director-at-Large Reports

Mike

Talking with John JP Pohlhaus about how to post to HacDC blog on behalf of ham radio club.

M. "mirage335"

Last time HacDC funded a Laser Cutter, it was a $3k expense, had to fit through the door, had marginal size/performance goals, and limited life expectancy. Additionally, everyone was informed we had better prospects of building a better machine ourselves. Approximately $5k budget was allocated over the history of Project LASER, and another $1k was spent on additional tooling.

Now, we hackers have actually demonstrated our prowess, having built a massive scale laser-cutter in place. We believe it is entirely possible to offer safety and usability features, comparable to or better than commercial units. Further, plans are underway to build a smaller classroom unit for training purposes. Allocating funds to back our volunteers' hard work will not only ensure timely completion, but also enable us to achieve decent build quality.

Propose allocating $3.5k to Optical Table Robot from the general fund, and raise the spending authority for this project to $1.5k/month. Absolute priority will be given to these funds being used for the purposes of (1) commissioning a small classroom CNC machine to include laser-cuttting, (2) improve basement CNC machine especially in areas of reliability, safety, and usability, (3) purchase an off-the-shelf laser cutter from eBay costing less than $500 only in the event of community dissatisfaction with our own classroom and basement laser-cutting machines, and (4) purchase needed equipment to fabricate resources for building or maintaing CNC machines at HacDC (eg. drill press chuck).

Financially, HacDC is healthy, can afford this, and should expect a positive return on investing in its volunteer efforts. Our revenue stream has stabilized around relatively committed members, expenses are low enough for a few contributors to back up in emergency, cash flow is positive, and we have over $12k in the bank. Moreover, policies are now in place to better protect our investments.

We are now in a great position to do this right. We should.

Dungeon Master Report

There is a dungeon, and we are working on a rules set for it.

Our first priority was getting the Taig CNC mill back online. This has been completed, and has been tested.

The bench grinder is toast. dead motor is my guess.

The drillpress has a chuck, but I recommend purchasing a new one. Other than that it's functional.

Bobby's miter saw is in a usable location.

The lathe looks to be in order, but has not been tested.

The Optical Table Robot needs a PC, and a new microcontroller to replace the one I ripped out of the rostock. It's laser tube is still nonfunctional.

Project SUPPLIES

Nothing to report.

Project EXPANSION

Funding the classroom web-conference desktop machine fell through, due eBay sale closing while other proposals and distractions were under consideration. Still expecting to fund this, awaiting new proposals.

Project HAMRADIO

Yaesu International Has shipped our 440 mhz repeater, which will be installed in late March, early April. Lee, N4TCW and Gonzo, AI1W have donated Yaesu FT-847 transceivers to Harc. One will be used online for hf/vhf/uhf and satellite and the other will be used for portable operations, including Field Day, National Parks on the Air, Arrl Kids Day and JTOT (Jamboree on the air). HacDC Amateur Radio club continues to grow. We are sponsoring monthly exam sessions on the second Saturday of each month. Visit our online hf transceiver at www.remotehams.com

Project SEM (Electron Microscope)

A replacement vacuum gauge has been acquired out of personal member funds and is awaiting a day project members are available to install it. The console is still reporting a filament fail from the plinth, the vacuum meter still does not light up despite there being an obvious vacuum, and the vacuum test points still do not register a proper startup voltage pattern as measured on an equivalent SEM. It is hoped that a new vacuum gauge will lead to a correct startup voltage pattern that will ultimately cause the vacuum readout to function so the console believes there is a proper vacuum for the filament to function correctly.

Project SEM is still looking for volunteers with solid electrical engineering background that can consistently commit time to the project. Engineering schematics are available and we have access to a fully functioning SEM plinth of the same model and vintage.

Project OTR (Optical Table Robot)

Member Reports

Enrique

Event food fund. Many non-profits buy food for their events rather than having the organizer pay for the food. We could have a monthly 'event food budget', try to negotiate sponsorships from local food vendors. This idea came up with the Audit Committee.

We have two new videos up on YouTube: LCD TV Repair (instructional) and Lockpicking (more of a promo).

We had two basement work days (I went to one); the electronics components are now in the classroom and the woodworking stuff in the basement.

I also replaced the scope on the workbench with the newly donated Tektronics TDS 224. It maybe only 100MHz instead of 150MHz but it's much easier to use.

The LCD picture frame works again and has updated photos, but needs a location.

We only have four people for US Science & Engineering Festival so far. Please, help.

mirage335

SUPPLIES/EXPANSION PA Status

Brief

Have heard a suggestion that SUPPLIES and EXPANSION should not be handled under the PA structure, because their scope falls more along the lines of somewhat normal operating expenses or discretionary bugets. The idea seems to be that, like rent, there should be a monthly budget allocation separate from PA.

In principle, maybe it makes sense to empower the BoD to made decisions over funding or custodianship for such budgets. In practice, there were some good reasons SUPPLIES was established as a PA fund last time the debate came up.

In short, PA is a complex structure with demonstrated success addressing fairness, leadership, and prioritization issues. We might want to empower the board to select the custodian like the Dungeon Master, while keeping the structure.

History - For the record or interested members, we don't need to read this.

Historically, back in 2013, SUPPLIES was originally Project 3DP - a 3D printer filament fund led by AndyTa. Ideally, we don't want to charge everyone who uses tiny quantities of filament, especially not for the purpose of maintaining HacDC equipment. Further, making some filament available for guest use also brings in more revenue than cost. Some degree of expertise was also needed to select good quality filament. On the other hand, it might not be fair to ask all members to contribute filament funding, whether they see the benefit or not. General fund expenditures may have been a bit more controversial at the time - arguably some members had a stronger financial stake.

Project Awesome was created to solve exactly this sort of dilemma - members can vote for how they want their own dues spent, and a single leader gets the job done.

Soon, it became obvious that HacDC had the means, and the need, to fulfill stocking requirements beyond filament and 3D printers. Ink, mill stock, electronic components, solder, even paper and labels are needed by a functioning hackerspace. We had multiple active communities with active projects likely to stall without trivial supplies on hand. And so, it was proposed that Project 3DP be converted to Project SUPPLIES with a wider scope.

Even at the time, there were suggestions, particularly from Nootroope (aka. Alberto), that having supplies on hand were important enough to justify drawing directly from the general fund at any time. Four counterarguments prevailed. First, supplies expenses are arguably less critical, therefore lower priority, than paying rent. PA ensures that necessary expenses come first. Second, as mentioned above, PA is inherently fair. Third, we had a strong surplus to provide dividends anyway. Fourth, with a healthy reserve alreay in the budget, allocating more funds could wait for a membership meeting. Again, there was an element of fairness - PA contacts must report every month, and member votes have a direct say both ways month by month.

Thus, SUPPLIES was established as a PA fund.

At the time, we were bringing in a healthy, increasing surplus every month. Soon, SUPPLIES was filled to >$1k, sufficient to repair catastrophic damage to multiple HacDC machines if necessary. In effect, SUPPLIES was exceeding requirements, having become a rapid-response insurance policy capable of keeping everything going. In fact, to this day, the balance earned that year has successfully covered important expenses and enabled us to act on opportunities for about the past two years. Clearly, SUPPLIES did not need more than trickle funding to continue indefinitely. And so, a new project was proposed to make future funds available for more purposes.

Thus, EXPANSION was established as a PA fund.

Buying new equipment is more clearly lower priority than paying rent. Using a mechanism allowing general-fund draw down without member vote would be high-risk. Leadership would be important as well. Even at the time, forseeable opportunities for bikeshedding were endless. Balancing fairness would be particularly essential, given the greater potential for controversy with expenditures likely concentrated into just a few well chosen items. Once again, Project Awesome seemed to be an ideal structure for such purposes.

Unfortunately, EXPANSION did not fare well as SUPPLIES. Shortly after establishment, dividends slowed to a trickle, then ceased entirely. As financial crisis developed, emphasis turned away from high-hopes. Today, with our critical expenses (ie. rent) reduced to less than stable income, we are cash positive, and may see new developments through EXPANSION.

Finally, I encourage everyone to read the Project_Awesome_Rules. Many provisions to give the BoD a final say, safeguards are in place, and members may always vote to allocate funds as they see fit at a monthly meeting. One exception to this is that the BoD does not have direct authority to dismiss a project contact for refusing to dispense funds. Two workarounds are available - any member can establish a new fund and request reallocation to it, or the BoD could be given authority to choose the PoC contact for these particular funds much like the Dungeon Master.

Old Funding Proposals

The two proposals tabled last month were lacking in specific structure, intended merely to present a choice where to direct resources. Please consider the current EXPANSION allocation instead.

Membership Structure

HacDC has one level of membership - keyholding, voting. Most hackerspaces don't. Our (euphemistically) unique bylaws make this an especially inconvenient situation. What alternatives are palatable to our members?

Old Business

Proposal to allocate $2,000 for fully recomissioning the OpticalTableRobot. (Tabled at the last meeting)

Proposal to allocate $500 for an off-the-shelf throw-away eBay laser cutter. - (Tabled at the last meeting)

New Business

Propose that we allocate $100 from our general fund for card and a gift for Brian, Saint Stephen's departing administrator. We can brainstorm what the gift should be; maybe lots of sunscreen since he's moving to a sunny desert place.